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Poems to Listen By: Sharing the Canopy 01—Under the Black Oaks

By Laurie Klein 10 Comments

Under the Black Oaks

Under the Black Oaks

Poems to Listen By: Sharing the Canopy: 8 Ways Trees Embody Our Stories—Under the Black Oaks. Presented by Laurie Klein

Laurie Klein

Audio script:

From seed to sapling, from leafy crown to taproot, from understory to back story (and beyond!), trees—and tree poems—may enchant and mystify as well as delight us. 

Take the chestnut, for example. Poet Pablo Neruda once compared the seed’s mahogany sheen to a violin newly born in the treetops, falling to earth as a way to offer the gifts locked inside it. 

I love that image. Neruda’s whimsical violin metaphor—like poetry itself—promises riches untold. It’s the polar opposite of Chicken Little’s shrill, one-note warning: “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

Bearing these two different energies in mind, listen to this poem. You might hear a dash of mischief alongside musings—and unexpected music!—as poet Stephen Dunn moves his lawn chair . . . and, in so doing, becomes the understory.

[“Under the Black Oaks” poem]

Photo by Jan Tik, Creative Commons license via Flickr. “Under the Black Oaks” used with permission of the poet. Audio and script by Laurie Klein with thanks to Pat Stien for direction and Bill Klein for engineering and music from his solo album, “Lauda.” 

Dunn, Stephen, Under the Black Oaks, in New and Selected Poems 1974-1994 (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1994), 189. 

Neruda, Pablo, ”Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground,” in Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda / translated by Stephen Mitchell (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1997), 39.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem about being the “understory,” beneath either a forest or a single tree. What kind of forest? Or, what kind of tree is it? Are you alone? What do you hear, see, taste, feel? Consider researching a little about your chosen forest or tree, to give us some unexpected details and help us really see and feel your understory experience.
 

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Laurie Klein
Laurie Klein
Laurie Klein inherited her mother's passion for reading aloud. Despite mispronouncing "manure" in Mrs. Englebert's 4th grade class—to hooting derision from classmates as she read Charlotte's Web—she later pursued Theatre Arts at Whitworth University, in Spokane, Washington. "Can you teach me to play 100 characters?" she asked. They did. To this day, Professor Emeritus Pat Stien (now 93), continues to mentor Laurie (soon-to-be 69). As with writing, one never masters the art. Laurie's performance credits stateside and abroad include plays, one-woman shows, storytelling events, poetry readings, audiobooks, videos, and spoken word recordings for albums and public radio.
Laurie Klein
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Filed Under: Patron Only, Podcasts, Poems to Listen By, poetry prompt, Tree Poems, Under the Canopy

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Comments

  1. L.L. Barkat says

    November 27, 2019 at 1:01 pm

    Laurie, this series is so infused with spirit and love! Thank you for giving voice to Stephen Dunn’s poem (and those to come).

    Now I am wanting to sit under a tree on Thanksgiving and experience a sky-harvest of acorns. 🙂

    Reply
    • Laurie Klein says

      November 27, 2019 at 6:36 pm

      Thank you for the opportunity, L.L.

      Your wish sounds like a poem-in-the-making . . . 🙂 I wonder: What style music might they make for you?

      Reply
  2. Bethany R. says

    November 27, 2019 at 2:33 pm

    Happy Thankgsiving to you and the Tweetspeak Poetry community! Laurie, what a comforting, expressive, winsome way you have of delivering words. I’m grateful for this delightful post and TSP’s idea to host more of them. I’ll be ruminating on the word, understory, over the holiday weekend.

    Reply
    • Laurie Klein says

      November 27, 2019 at 6:41 pm

      Bethany, hello, and thank you for entering into the oral adventure. That word “understory” feels ripe with possibilities to me, too. If you end up writing something, I hope you’ll share it.

      Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

      Reply
      • Bethany says

        December 1, 2019 at 10:09 pm

        Thank you, Laurie. 🙂

        Reply
  3. Megan Willome says

    November 27, 2019 at 3:33 pm

    Laurie, this is delightful! Thank you for introducing me to a new poem.

    Here’s one I wrote this fall, titled “Eggs”:

    Eggs

    That day we
    were on the phone

    two thousand miles
    between us

    Your anger knocked me over and
    I noticed there

    beneath the burr oak
    acorns

    You yelled
    I picked acorns

    (three melded into
    one triangle)

    saved them in a cup you left
    behind.

    Each autumn I pull it out
    Fill it with oak eggs

    Reply
    • Laurie Klein says

      November 27, 2019 at 7:09 pm

      Megan, thank you for sharing these clear, compelling words about “having words”—the (long-distance) range of emotions suggested in so few words is marvelous—jarring, then sad, the crumple of anger, the persona embracing distraction (the triangle!), then the implied movement toward acceptance, over time, the yearly ritual luminous with latent possibility. The two phones we are left to imagine being hung up feels so emblematic of relational disconnect. And that vivid closing image: the oak eggs, nested in the abandoned cup. Moving and beautiful.

      Reply
    • Bethany R. says

      December 1, 2019 at 10:15 pm

      Those acorns. Appreciating that the speaker in the poem took those bonded acorns and

      “saved them in a cup you left
      behind.”

      Makes me feel hopeful–like they are waiting or welcoming something else to birth (love the egg imagery).

      Reply
  4. Jody Collins says

    November 29, 2019 at 7:12 pm

    My friend, my friend…. your voice is like music. And the poetry is such a gift. I am inspired, as always.

    Reply
    • Laurie Klein says

      November 29, 2019 at 7:29 pm

      Jody, thank you so much for listening. Isn’t that Neruda image brilliant? Glad you’re feeling inspired! May beauty spill forth because of it . . .

      Reply

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